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About Worldmapper

Introduction

This website contains a large collection of maps (and associated information) that we are in the process of generating. Each map relates to a particular subject. Click on the 'Thumbnail Index' which gives thumbnail previews of the maps, 'Map Categories' which is classified to see the choice, or a new option 'A-Z Map Index', and view a map and associated information. There is also a Site Map and Help page.

Coverage The maps and data files cover 200 territories, mainly United Nation Member States plus a few others to include at least 99.95% of the world's population. For a map identifying them see the labelled territory map, and for a cartogram giving them all equal prominence see Appendix A (Areas Included). Further details about their names are given in Technical Notes for Land Area. Also shown on the maps are 62 other areas, mostly small islands, which do not have unique data but are assigned to and included in the data of the 200. For details see Appendix B (Islands Assigned to Territories).

Cartograms The maps presented on this website are equal area cartograms, otherwise known as density-equalising maps. The cartogram re-sizes each territory according to the variable being mapped. See About the Maps. To get a higher resolution map, click on it.

Colours and regions The colours used on the maps group the territories into 12 geographical regions, and allow for an easier visual comparison between the maps than would otherwise be possible. The shading of each territory within a region is consistent throughout all of the maps. You can view a labelled territory map with the territories labelled, and also a labelled regions map .

Posters and high-quality pdfs Each map page gives a link to a poster. This is a pdf file which has a higher resolution map and some extra information in a chart or table. It is also designed to be printed out.

Data files When you choose a map to view, there are links at the bottom to download a data file giving the values used for all 200 territories, a graph (usually a cumulative frequency one) of the data, and a top 10 or 20 table (and the original data used, and its source).

It is important to note that all of the datasets that are used for the Worldmapper project contains estimates, approximations and inaccuracies. For more details see the data page.

There is also a data sources page giving details of the websites where much of the data has been obtained from.

Technical notes Each map has associated technical notes about the data and its sources. Additional information is present in the Technical Notes for the Land Area map Map. More information about the sources is in Data Sources.

Who we are Details of the Worldmapper Team are given in 'About Us'. The organisations and others who have supported us are given in 'Credits' and details of how to contact us in 'Contact'. Copyright details are in 'Copyright'.

Work in progress We are regularly adding to this site. Our progress is reported in 'News'. You can receive notification of updates using RSS, or by subscribing to our mailing list, which is only used to announce the addition of new maps.

Additional files Additional files that are not about a specific map are in 'Files'.

http://www.worldmapper.org/textindex/text_index.html

// posted by Alice @ Friday, March 30, 2007 0 Comments

As I write this, Congress is debating timetables for withdrawal from Iraq. In response to the Bush Administration’s “surge” of troops, and the Republicans’ refusal to limit our occupation, the Democrats are behaving with their customary timidity, proposing withdrawal, but only after a year, or eighteen months. And it seems they expect the anti-war movement to support them.

That was suggested in a recent message from MoveOn, which polled its members on the Democrat proposal, saying that progressives in Congress, “like many of us, don’t think the bill goes far enough, but see it as the first concrete step to ending the war.”

Ironically, and shockingly, the same bill appropriates $124 billion in more funds to carry the war. It’s as if, before the Civil War, abolitionists agreed to postpone the emancipation of the slaves for a year, or two years, or five years, and coupled this with an appropriation of funds to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act.

When a social movement adopts the compromises of legislators, it has forgotten its role, which is to push and challenge the politicians, not to fall in meekly behind them.

We who protest the war are not politicians. We are citizens. Whatever politicians may do, let them first feel the full force of citizens who speak for what is right, not for what is winnable, in a shamefully timorous Congress.

We who protest the war are not politicians. We are citizens. Whatever politicians may do, let them first feel the full force of citizens who speak for what is right, not for what is winnable, in a shamefully timorous Congress.

Timetables for withdrawal are not only morally reprehensible in the case of a brutal occupation (would you give a thug who invaded your house, smashed everything in sight, and terrorized your children a timetable for withdrawal?) but logically nonsensical. If our troops are preventing civil war, helping people, controlling violence, then why withdraw at all? If they are in fact doing the opposite—provoking civil war, hurting people, perpetuating violence—they should withdraw as quickly as ships and planes can carry them home.

It is four years since the United States invaded Iraq with a ferocious bombardment, with “shock and awe.” That is enough time to decide if the presence of our troops is making the lives of the Iraqis better or worse. The evidence is overwhelming. Since the invasion, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died, and, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, about two million Iraqis have left the country, and an almost equal number are internal refugees, forced out of their homes, seeking shelter elsewhere in the country.

Yes, Saddam Hussein was a brutal tyrant. But his capture and death have not made the lives of Iraqis better, as the U.S. occupation has created chaos: no clean water, rising rates of hunger, 50 percent unemployment, shortages of food, electricity, and fuel, a rise in child malnutrition and infant deaths. Has the U.S. presence diminished violence? On the contrary, by January 2007 the number of insurgent attacks has increased dramatically to 180 a day.

The response of the Bush Administration to four years of failure is to send more troops. To add more troops matches the definition of fanaticism: If you find you’re going in the wrong direction, redouble your speed. It reminds me of the physician in Europe in the early nineteenth century who decided that bloodletting would cure pneumonia. When that didn’t work, he concluded that not enough blood had been let.

The Congressional Democrats’ proposal is to give more funds to the war, and to set a timetable that will let the bloodletting go on for another year or more. It is necessary, they say, to compromise, and some anti-war people have been willing to go along. However, it is one thing to compromise when you are immediately given part of what you are demanding, if that can then be a springboard for getting more in the future. That is the situation described in the recent movie The Wind That Shakes The Barley, in which the Irish rebels against British rule are given a compromise solution—to have part of Ireland free, as the Irish Free State. In the movie, Irish brother fights against brother over whether to accept this compromise. But at least the acceptance of that compromise, however short of justice, created the Irish Free State. The withdrawal timetable proposed by the Democrats gets nothing tangible, only a promise, and leaves the fulfillment of that promise in the hands of the Bush Administration.

There have been similar dilemmas for the labor movement. Indeed, it is a common occurrence that unions, fighting for a new contract, must decide if they will accept an offer that gives them only part of what they have demanded. It’s always a difficult decision, but in almost all cases, whether the compromise can be considered a victory or a defeat, the workers have been given some thing palpable, improving their condition to some degree. If they were offered only a promise of something in the future, while continuing an unbearable situation in the present, it would not be considered a compromise, but a sellout. A union leader who said, “Take this, it’s the best we can get” (which is what the MoveOn people are saying about the Democrats’ resolution) would be hooted off the platform.

I am reminded of the situation at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, when the black delegation from Mississippi asked to be seated, to represent the 40 percent black population of that state. They were offered a “compromise”—two nonvoting seats. “This is the best we can get,” some black leaders said. The Mississippians, led by Fannie Lou Hamer and Bob Moses, turned it down, and thus held on to their fighting spirit, which later brought them what they had asked for. That mantra—“the best we can get”—is a recipe for corruption.

It is not easy, in the corrupting atmosphere of Washington, D.C., to hold on firmly to the truth, to resist the temptation of capitulation that presents itself as compromise. A few manage to do so. I think of Barbara Lee, the one person in the House of Representatives who, in the hysterical atmosphere of the days following 9/11, voted against the resolution authorizing Bush to invade Afghanistan. Today, she is one of the few who refuse to fund the Iraq War, insist on a prompt end to the war, reject the dishonesty of a false compromise.

Except for the rare few, like Barbara Lee, Maxine Waters, Lynn Woolsey, and John Lewis, our representatives are politicians, and will surrender their integrity, claiming to be “realistic.”

We are not politicians, but citizens. We have no office to hold on to, only our consciences, which insist on telling the truth. That, history suggests, is the most realistic thing a citizen can do.

Howard Zinn is the author, most recently, of “A Power Governments Cannot Suppress.”

// posted by Alice @ Thursday, March 29, 2007 0 Comments

• CDT Policy Post: COPA Ruling March 23, 2007
• COPA Ruling [PDF] March 22, 2007

// posted by Alice @ Tuesday, March 27, 2007 0 Comments

1. Overview of the Quest
2. Overview of Practicies Involved
3. Relax and Retreat
4. Elementary Meditation
5. The Body
6. Emotions and Ethics
7. The Intellect
8. The Ego
9. From Birth to Rebirth
10. Healing of the Self
11. The Negatives
12. Reflections
13. Human Experience
14. The Arts in Culture
15. The Orient
16. The Sensitives
17. The Religious Urge
18. The Reverential Life
19. The Reign of Relativity
20. What Is Philosophy?
21. Mentalism
22. Inspiration and the Overself
23. Advanced Contemplation
24. The Peace within You
25. World-Mind in Individual Mind
26. World-Idea
27. World-Mind
28. The Alone

// posted by Alice @ Tuesday, March 27, 2007 0 Comments

The certificate is headlined: "Certificate of Ownership — The War in Iraq: You Bought It, You Own It," and goes on to say: "In dubious recognition of your vote to continue funding the War in Iraq, we do hereby bestow upon you this Deed of Ownership." It is dated March 23, 2007, and signed by Military Families Speak Out, Iraq Veterans against the War and Veterans for Peace.

The back of the certificate reads:

Warranty: With your purchase of this war comes a guarantee of:

* The deaths of 3 US troops and countless Iraqi children, women and men every day; * Over 500 wounded US troops each month; * Increased suicides among returning Iraq War Veterans; * Increased destruction of marriages and families of Iraq War Veterans; * Inadequate medical and psychological care for returning troops and Veterans; * Depletion of the National Treasury; * Under-funding of health care, education, social services for people in the US; * Destruction of Iraqi infrastructure; * Decreased credibility for the United States in the world community; * Decreased readiness—short and long-term—of US military. 

"What we have just witnessed is a true failure of leadership," said Nancy Lessin, a co-founder of Military Families Speak Out, whose step-son served with the Marines in Iraq in spring, 2003. "People across this nation voted in November for an end to the war, not for Congress to provide President Bush with the funds to continue it. Our loved ones were first betrayed when they were sent off to fight a war based on lies. The US House of Representatives has betrayed them one again by abandoning them to this unjustifiable war." * http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/25/WAR.TMP Sean Penn, Rep. Lee rally against Iraq war Actor backs troops, not Bush, at Oakland town hall meeting by Carolyn Jones, Cecilia M. Vega Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn was the star attraction at a town hall meeting Saturday in Oakland, where hundreds of people gathered to denounce the war in Iraq and call for an immediate withdrawal of American troops. Neither Penn nor Rep. Barbara Lee, the Oakland Democrat who has opposed the war since before it began four years ago, offered much in the way of specifics for ending the conflict, and they were largely preaching to the choir. The enthusiastic and occasionally boisterous crowd of 800 or so crammed into the Grand Lake Theater wildly cheered as Penn excoriated President Bush. "You and your smarmy pundits -- and the smarmy pundits you have in your pocket -- can take your war and shove it," Penn said. "Let's unite not only in stopping this war, but in holding this administration accountable." The town hall meeting came six days after peace marches were held nationwide to mark the fourth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and one day after the House of Representatives voted 218-212 to withdraw combat troops by Sept. 1, 2008. Penn reiterated a point often made by opponents of the war when he said he supports the troops but opposes the war. "Let's make this crystal clear: We do support our troops, but not the exploitation of them and their families," he said. "The money that's spent on this war would be better spent on building levees in New Orleans and health care in Africa and care for our veterans. Iraq is not our toilet. It's a country of human beings whose lives that were once oppressed by Saddam are now in 'Dante's Inferno.' " Lee was among the California Democrats who voted Friday against the $124 billion war spending measure that Bush has promised to veto. Lee is a member of the Out of Iraq Caucus, which includes Lynn Woolsey of Petaluma and Maxine Waters of Los Angeles. "We can't afford to spend one more dime or lose one more American or Iraqi life on this illegal and unwinnable war," Lee told the crowd. Outside the theater, protesters carried signs reading, "Impeach Bush." Among those who attended the rally were members of Grandmothers Against the War. After the meeting, everyone from grandmothers and students to veterans and mothers pushing strollers marched along Lake Merritt to Oakland City Hall for an afternoon rally at which Lee again spoke. As she took the microphone, the crowd chanted, "Barbara Lee told you so. Bush's war has got to go." "The only thing this government needs is for the people to be silent and then they can do whatever they want," said Joan MacIntyre, a 74-year-old great-grandmother from Oakland. MacIntyre, like many who attended Saturday's events, was no stranger to war protests. She has marched in numerous rallies since the Iraq war started in March 2003 and was arrested Monday during a San Francisco protest. It was her 41st arrest, she boasted proudly. "At least I can hold my head up and say that I tried," she said. At the rally, organized by a coalition of Oakland community groups, folk singers led the crowd in song and a performer rapped about violence in the streets. There were calls for impeachment of the president and for troops to be brought home and pleas for federal dollars to be spent on schools rather than on the war. Rodney Brown, 30, an Oakland substitute teacher, said he would have liked to see more people at the protest. While organizers said between 500 and 700 attended, many remarked that the crowd seemed significantly smaller. Police declined to provide a crowd count. "Money needs to be going to our schools and the communities here instead of funding for this war," Brown said. Hava Ratinsky, a native of Israel who now lives in Oakland, attended the protest with her 6-year-old son, Aviv. She wondered whether, after four years of protesting, people were just too tired of not seeing any change. "There's a war going on, and it's mind-boggling to me that people can continue to live their daily lives and not pay attention," she said. On Saturday evening, more than three dozen anti-war activists, all dressed in black and some beating hand-held drums, marched up to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's home in San Francisco's tony Pacific Heights neighborhood to chastise the Democratic leader for not doing more to halt the war immediately. "Nancy Pelosi, stop compromising your morals. We want our troops home now," said Toby Blome, a protest leader with the group Code Pink: Women for Peace. She hung a black "wreath of death," made of sticks and lace, on the front door. "We're bringing death to Nancy Pelosi's doorstep because she is going to be responsible for all the deaths still to come as a result of the illegal war in Iraq," said Blome, an El Cerrito resident who led the short march that organizers described as a funeral procession.

// posted by Alice @ Sunday, March 25, 2007 0 Comments

Fife Symington decides to set record straight ten years after famed "Phoenix Lights" incident CFi Press Release, March 18, 2007 Read full exclusive story by Leslie Kean (PDF File )

A video clip of the former Governor can be seen at: http://www.outofthebluethemovie.com/5YearAnniversary/5YAR.html

Symington's sighting was first revealed to California filmmaker James Fox in an August on-camera interview, to be included in the re-release of Fox’s 2003 UFO documentary “Out of the Blue,” co-produced with Tim Coleman and Boris Zubov and narrated by Peter Coyote. On camera, Fox played Symington a taped message from constituent and witness Stacey Roads who said the craft she saw was so massive that an opened newspaper would not block it out from view. “Is this still a matter of ridicule to him [Symington]? After he came out on TV making us all look a little foolish? Or has he taken a new stance on this?” she queried. His full response, first made public in Kean's story, will be featured in the 2007 release of "Out of the Blue."

It says in the preamble: “The accumulation of well-document-ed observations compels us now to consider all hypotheses as to the origin of UFOs, especially extraterrestrial hypotheses.”

The report discusses 15 cases, including one in which British jet fighters were scrambled from RAF Lakenheath to investigate mysterious objects over East Anglia in 1956.

It says that hoaxes are easily detectable and calls the position of America “still one of denial”. It concludes: “The physical reality of UFOs, under control of intelligent beings, is almost certain.” ...

* “It was enormous and inexplicable. Who knows where it came from? A lot of people saw it, and I saw it too. It was dramatic. And it couldn’t have been flares because it was too symmetrical. It had a geometric outline, a constant shape.

// posted by Alice @ Sunday, March 25, 2007 0 Comments

Second, the outcome of this equation is then multiplied by a weight assigned to each crime category. For this year’s award, we again gave each crime category equal weight. Thus state comparisons are based purely on crime rates and how these rates stack up to the national average for a given crime category.

Third, the weighted numbers are added together to achieve state’s score ("SUM.") In the fourth and final step, these composite scores are ranked from highest to lowest to determine which states are the most dangerous and safest. Thus the farther below the national average a state’s crime rate is, the lower (and safer) it ranks. The farther above the national average, the higher (and more dangerous) a state ranks in the final list.

A Word About Crime Rankings

Morgan Quitno’s annual rankings of crime in states, metro areas and cities are considered by some in the law enforcement community as controversial. The FBI and many criminologists caution against rankings according to crime rates. They correctly point out that crime levels are affected by many different factors, such as population density, composition of the population (particularly the concentration of youth), climate, economic conditions, strength of local law enforcement agencies, citizen’s attitudes toward crime, cultural factors, education levels, crime reporting practices of citizens and family cohesiveness. Accordingly, crime rankings often are deemed “simplistic” or “incomplete.”

However, this criticism is largely based on the fact that there are reasons for the differences in crime rates, not that the rates are incompatible. This would be somewhat akin to deciding not to compare athletes on their speed in the 100-yard dash because of physical or training differences. Such differences help explain the different speeds but do not invalidate the comparisons.

To be sure, crime-ranking information must be considered carefully. However the rankings tell not only an interesting, but also very important story regarding the incidence of crime in the United States. Furthermore, annual rankings not only allow for comparisons among different states and cities, but also enable leaders to track their communities’ crime trends from one year to the next.

We certainly do not want to be irresponsible in our presentation of state and city crime data. Our publications help concerned Americans learn how their communities fare in the fight against crime. The first step in making our cities and states safer is to understand the true magnitude of their crime problems. This will only be achieved through straightforward data that all of us can use and understand.

THE EDITORS

// posted by Alice @ Friday, March 23, 2007 0 Comments